Sand Creek Massacre site demands we confront racial violence

EADS, Colo. (AP) — The site sits hundreds of miles from any major city. There are no statues to admire, no gift shops to buy postcards, and no cheery activities for the kids. To get there, one must drive through hours of farm and dirt roads amid potholes and sometimes ice patches in winter littering the journey like landmines.

And when you arrive at the Sand Creek Massacre site, you'll find open plains and a few markers. The rest is up to you.

This quiet piece of land tucked away in rural southeastern Colorado seeks to honor the 230 Cheyenne and Arapaho tribe members who were slaughtered by the U.S. Army. It was one of the worst mass murders in U.S. history.

My wife's grandma, Sally, said I shouldn't visit unless I'm ready to meet ghosts. She meant it not to scare, but as a warning: The ghosts will have something to say, and if you want to venture out there, you need to listen.

On November 29, 1864, Col. John Chivington led around 700 U.S. volunteer soldiers to a village of nearly 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho people camped along the banks of Big Sandy Creek. The Ohio-born Chivington had earned praise two years before by helping Hispanic Union soldiers in New Mexico beat back a Confederate supply train in the Battle of Glorieta Pass during the Civil War.

But on that November day, he ordered his men to attack and kill mainly women, children and elderly at the camp. The village under the care of Chiefs Black Kettle and Left Hand had believed they were under the protection of the U.S. Army and even approached the unit with white flags.

For two days, the troops shot and hunted fleeing women and children about a 35 square-mile (90.7 square-kilometer) region. Troops then cut off the body parts of those killed and kept human remains as trophies.

An Army judge would later call...